Exhibit Tells UTA Campus Integration Story

The UTA Libraries Special Collections' new mini exhibit “Change is Upon Us: UTA’s Integration in 1962” has a powerful story to tell visitors. The exhibit tells how Arlington State College, now UTA, became an integrated campus. 

Evan Spencer, a Public Services librarian/archivist in the Special Collections and Archives Department, shared that several Black students, with the help of the Dallas NAACP, were able to change university admission policy. 

“All public schools in Texas were segregated until Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954. A lot of the schools did not listen to that until much later,” Evan said. “(At the time) Arlington State College was segregated, and in the spring of 1962, several students from James Madison High School, a Black high school in Dallas, applied to attend.” 

 Evan stated that the official policy of the Texas A&M System at that time, which Arlington State College was a part of, was to forward any black applicants to Prairie View A&M. Prairie View is near Houston. 

“Those students had no interest in going to Prairie View; they wanted to go to Arlington State College. They wanted to stay close to home and didn’t want to go to Prairie View. So, they hired a lawyer named Fred Finch Jr., who was with the Dallas NAACP,” Evan said. “Fred Finch sent a letter to the president of Arlington State College, President Jack Woolf. It (the letter) said they were going to file a lawsuit.” 

Evan stated that President Woolf knew the college would lose the lawsuit at that point. Rather than go to court, the university changed the admission policy on July 10, 1962. This change allowed Black students to apply and attend the college that fall. Arlington State College became UTA in 1965, three years later. 

Evan stated that many people have stopped by to see the exhibit and are curious about the display. 

He noted that these mini exhibits allow more people to learn about the university’s history and highlight the records that are a part of Special Collections. 

To read the full story about how the campus was integrated, go to The Compass Rose blog post on the UTA Libraries website at https://bit.ly/3RJCOEO.